


welcome to the jungle

by sweetpca



Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Animal Kingdom, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 09:40:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19226539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetpca/pseuds/sweetpca
Summary: a collection of animal kingdom blurbs, headcanons and one-shots for the Cody family + the Blackwell's.some content will be rated 18+; the following trigger warnings may apply:gore, explicit sexual content, descriptive violence, mentions of self harm, mentions of suiciderequests are always welcome; feel free to forward your requests to indigodeity @ tumblr! I will also be posting all content on the blog as well.





	welcome to the jungle

**Author's Note:**

> **req:** fluffy blurb of baz actually wanting j to be his son 
> 
> I woke up at 4 am this morning and just got this drilled out; couldn't wait to post it because im so excited to write for these beans! comments/suggestions always welcome :)

_“Are you my dad? I know that you and my mom were …”_

_“What if I am? It’s too late to matter, isn’t it?”_

He was nervous. Two days ago, his emotions were running high. He meant it when he said it was too late to matter. The kid was grown. He had his own opinions, could hold his own — a father had obviously never been a priority to him before, so consider Baz surprised that he had mentioned it at all.

To be frank, he was more surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.

He wondered a hundred times over and over if a day would ever come where he might have to actually face a reality he tried to bury long ago. And then when confronted about the truth, he shrugged it off instead. Seventeen years of waiting, and he walked away. Cath talked him down after he stormed into the house, face red, breathing heavy and loud. It was just the job that was getting to him. It was just his stress running high.

So what was he so scared of? Being a father – to anyone – was still fairly new to him. While he had known that the possibility of Joshua existed, Baz never gave himself the opportunity to prepare himself for situations like that. For conversations like that. And the longer he sat on the edge of his bed, Cath’s fingers slowly trailing across the span of his back, Baz began to look back on his childhood growing up, and decided the pair had some similarities.

He had grown up with a drunk for a father, and Julia … well, he knew that Julia had never been mother of the year. Shitty upbringings made for resilient adults; he knew Josh was imbedded with the same survivor instinct he had. He knew somewhere, there was a part of him that hated the idea of working for Smurf just as much as the rest of them.

So he’d go with that. Yeah.

It wasn’t his greatest plan, by any means. And he was usually pretty good with plans but this one sucked in particular.

Nothing but the sounds of the breeze through the leaves could be heard while he made his way into the backyard. Two woman lay half naked on the beach chairs, eyes shut and breathing even _. Must belong to Craig_ , he thought grimly, turning his attention towards the kitchen inside the house. Smurf stood behind the counter with her back turned to him as he approached, knocking twice on the threshold as so not to scare or startle her.

“Hey,” his voice was soft and quiet; he was concentrating hard to keep the nervousness from coming through. “Is the kid around?”

Smurf casted a look to the man over her shoulder, corner of her lip lifting in a knowing smile. She nodded, using the knife in her hand to gesture to the hallway to his right, “In his room.”

“Thanks.” Baz let out another huff of air, running his sweaty palms over his denim. It was a considerably cooler day in Oceanside, and despite this, he felt like his entire body was overheating. And he could see Josh before he even reached the threshold, wondered if he were wasting his time. He probably hates me. “Hey.”

Josh looked up, eyes confused for a moment before they relaxed, “Hey.”

“You got a minute?” This was starting to sound a lot like the beginning of the conversation they had two days ago. Pushing the thought from his mind, he moved into the room to lean against a wall. “I wanted to talk about what happened the other day.”

The kids face immediately dropped, worry pulling his brows together in the middle, “Look, the smoke was a stupid idea, I know. It won’t happen again. I swear.”

Baz shook his head, dropping his chin to his chest. “No, not about that. Uh,” he cleared his throat, looking around the bare walls. God, why was this so difficult?

“Oh,” J quickly let the shirt he was folding drop back into the hamper, holding his hands up, “We don’t have to do that again. Seriously.”

“No, I want to.” Baz replied firmly, arms folding over one another. “I’m just … would you believe me if I said I never really wanted to be a dad? I mean, don’t get me wrong – I love Lena. I love my wife, I love my family, I do, I just,” he shrugged his shoulders, letting them drop in defeat as the look on Josh’s face morphed. “Look, my old man was a drunk, alright? I was locked up, I was beat up, I had to grow up too fast and all of that other shit.”

It was quiet. Not knowing what to say, Josh turned to sit on the edge of his mattress, picking at the calluses on his hand. “What’s that gotta do with me?”

“So, the idea of being responsible for anyone other than myself was always been a mystery to me. I wasn’t ready to be a dad then – I couldn’t take care of Julia. I thought I was doing you a favour by staying out of your life,” Baz’s features had softened, something Josh hadn’t witnessed before. It was odd, watching the face of a stoic man falter. “But look at me now. I’m responsible for the hoard of dipshits running around.”

“What’re you saying, Baz?”

The man looked at his son, jaw tense, palms slick with sweat again as he took another deep inhale, reminding himself that he had practiced what he wanted to say over a thousand times. He just had to say it.

“I’m saying that I might have jumped the gun the other day,” he admitted, taking another step into the bedroom. He joined Josh on the bed, not too close to make things weird, but enough to show he was invested in the conversation. That he was serious. “What I said about your mom, that wasn’t … that wasn’t cool, and I’m sorry.”

Josh kept his eyes glued to the carpet, a sudden trickle of anxiety brewing in his lower abdomen. He watched the man wring his hands, pulling and twisting his digits. He wanted to say he appreciated the apology, but he was sure nothing that Baz said was false. Not exactly said in the most tasteful way, but probably not inaccurate.

The teen turned to Baz, biting the inside of his cheek. Two days ago, he had so much he wanted to say. The idea of Baz – the only person who seemed to have some sort of head on their shoulders – being his biological father brought him more peace than he anticipated. “You don’t have to apologize.”

“I think I kinda do.” Josh watched the man push his hands together, fold them, and then unfold them. "Look, J, I've done a lot of shitty things in my life. I've beaten people down, I steal for my own benefit ... but honestly, I always wondered how differently all of this would've turned out if I had left with Julia when Smurf curbed her."

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not one hundred percent about it,” Baz started, eyes closing as the words began to tumble from past his lips, “But there’s something telling me that maybe I was wrong. About being your dad.”

This time, Josh couldn’t help but snicker, brow lifting teasingly, “What, you want to coach my little league team now?”

Baz rocked sideways into Josh, unable to contain the smile that broke his tight lips; they sat together for another moment before the man decided to reply. “I was just thinking … maybe we could start over. I don’t have to parent you or any of that shit, I know you wouldn’t listen to me anyway, but I figured maybe …”

“Maybe it might be nice to give this a try?”

Baz nodded, nervousness vanished completely as he looked at Joshua again. This time, he really looked at him. Looked at the way his lips curved, just like Julia’s. And how his nose angled, the way his eyes shifted in the light. Were they blue? Were they green? _He a good lookin’ kid_ , Baz thought to himself, _he has to be mine_.

“I’d like that.”


End file.
